Mugabe India trip mystery deepens

The mystery surrounding President Robert Mugabe’s whereabouts deepened yesterday, as it emerged he might not have travelled directly to India as announced by government, but had instead made his way to Singapore, which he frequents ostensibly for medical treatment.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

Mugabe had reportedly left Zimbabwe for India on Monday evening to attend a low-key World Culture Festival, but questions began to emerge as he had left behind Culture minister Abednego Ncube, while the festival was only meant to start yesterday.

Investigations yesterday showed that instead of going to India, Mugabe had taken a direct flight to Singapore aboard an Air Zimbabwe UM1 Boeing 767-2 NDER, registration Z-WPF.

According to flightradar24, an aircraft tracking site, Flight UM1, which Mugabe and his entourage were believed to be on, departed Harare International Airport at 16:37hours and arrived in Singapore at 02:28am, although the purpose of his trip to the Southeast Asian country could not be ascertained.

Mugabe’s trip to India was shrouded in mystery as it emerged other countries had sent junior government ministers, MPs or their former Heads of State, meaning Mugabe was going to stick out like a sore thumb as the only serving African President to attend the function.

The other Presidents were from Sri Lanka and Nepal.

On Wednesday, the trip turned farcical after his Press secretary George Charamba announced Mugabe had cancelled his Indian engagement due to “substantial inadequacies in protocol and security arrangements around the event”.

But, Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo, who had said Mugabe was going to use the trip to further diplomatic engagements between Zimbabwe and the Asian sub-continent nation, yesterday insinuated that the President was not in India. “He is and was not in India, as much as you want him to be there,” he wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter in response to questions on where the President was.

Indian media had also reported that Mugabe cancelled his participation at the festival after his arrival in India, although this seemed unlikely.

The Zimbabwean government, on the other hand, maintained that Mugabe was due to be guest of honour at the function, although the World Culture Festival website made no mention of the Zimbabwean leader.

The bungling of the India trip becomes the second major gaffe by Mugabe, after he delivered a wrong speech at the State of the Nation Address last year.

Yesterday, opposition parties attacked Mugabe’s aides for failing to properly advise him and bringing embarrassment to Zimbabwe and the veteran leader.

Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) said the aborted trip to India had not only cost the nation a lot of money, but exposed the extent of confusion in government.

ZimPF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said: “Unfortunately, we are being led by confused people, who have no sense of direction as to where the nation is going, this trip exposes that confusion.”
The main opposition MDC-T also said the botched trip showed that the Foreign Affairs ministry was being manned by “incompetent people”.

People’s Democratic Party spokesperson Jacob Mafume said Treasury was struggling to pay civil servants salaries and carry out simple road maintenance, yet government had money to fund a huge entourage to attend a “street party” in India.

The Welshman Ncube-led MDC said the aborted trip came just two weeks after Mugabe’s birthday celebrations, which gobbled close to $1 million.

“Meanwhile, the country is being ravaged by drought and people are dying in their numbers in public hospitals due to shortages of drugs,” MDC spokesperson Kurauone Chihwayi said.

He challenged Mugabe to take “just one leaf” out of Tanzanian President John Magufuli’s book of “servant” leadership and “retain what little dignity he has left”.

28 Responses to Mugabe India trip mystery deepens

Dont blame him for running away from the country.
He has nothing to offer and now acting according to his conscince which tells him he should be on asylum like his Haile Marion.
Unfortunately nobody in Zim now appreciates him except his golddigging wife.
Sorry Grace. Aging is unavoidable. Allow the oldman to rest. He should by now retired attending cultural discos not on official capacity but retired in.wheelchair.
Shame

Dont blame him for running away from the country.
He has nothing to offer and now acting according to his conscince which tells him he should be on asylum like his Haile Marion.
Unfortunately nobody in Zim now appreciates him except his golddigging wife.
Sorry Grace. Aging is unavoidable. Allow the oldman to rest. He should by now retired attending cultural discos not on official capacity but retired in.wheelchair.
Shame

That is the reason why he left on Monday for Festival beginning today. The cultural festival was just an excuse to seek medical attention. That also explains why the Minister of culture was left out of the delegation. Could it be that the Minister of Culture now belongs to a wrong bhasikiti. It seems the trip was a G40 joy ride at tax payers’expense. Cry the beloved country!

The president must be allowed to rest. Its an offence to check the president’s availability.
Our president enjoys presidency and to me looking for an old man is not good. He suffered a lot. From the bush(war) to office then office and office.
If he so wishes to continue let him to it at his own risky. I mugabe educated his people nw i realize he did not because he still donot believe that no one can rule Zimbabwe.
But bosting with a country whose people are suffering is just being a rough rider.

Gushungo muchatonga kusvika vanhu ava vabatwa bp. We love you during inclusive gvt the former PM and his Ministers were making endless trips nhasi vorwadziwa. Inculsive exposed them hapana chavachataura chatichanzwa

Why is the so-called Prof usurping other ministers’ scope of official jurisdictions, and in the process belling out irrelevant unpalatable tongue-spits as if to pupport that the likes of Dr Mbengegwi are second-rate bureaucrats? Anyhow, does he own the president? Is he more Zimbabwean than everybody else? Is he a super-minister? Is he the only learned mind in the land?

Higher Education, Indigenization, Foreign Affairs, Sports, Mining, Information..in fact all government departments seem to be in the Prof’s ‘self-created’ composite portfolio run through an informal medium of communication. Its plainly unprofessional, unethical and utterly nonsensical.

It leaves us, the patriots, with emotional doubts as to whether there is logic in accommodating ‘ananias’ characters like him (Prof) in mix of serious national duty.

Last time, he had Tito Mboweni in his Twitter-cat-fight, then the whole South African citizenry, Gono, Kenyans, Zvobgo, Charamba, eish.

If that’s what attaining a Professorship implies, then I would rather be content with being what I am. It makes the whole Zim Professorial fraternity a laughing stock..unless there is consensus that this chap is purely out of his wits.

Prof, its time to start reading notes from the Mr and Mrs Mutsvangwa obituary, the Jabu end-time poetry and the Mr and Mrs Shamu end-time eulogies.

From a point of normal reasoning and sense-work..you can’t be there with a ‘right answer’ for every question every world citizen asks unless you are a god of some measure. So let’s treat each other with calculated extents of restraint.

No one is against him going to the hospital, but why lie?
Also why go to a foreign hospital when have so many “good” hospitals in Zimbabwe.
He should go to “Gomo” or “Pari” and get the treatment everyone is getting!!!

That has to be said kuti arikuenda kunorapwa not lying to the nation that hes attending some dubious function. At this rate he will be attending some musical show in South Africa or elsewhere to watch Zahara.

I knew he would need a recharge soon after his 92nd birthday bash and the recent central commitee meeting. Saka has gone for a plasma exchange where they extract all his old and poisonous plasma and infuse him with some fresh plasma from young energetic blood donors…
But eventually by the end of it, the flesh and the bones will not hold.

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